Part 3, Chapter 12
I remember when I was younger putting drops of food coloring into water and seeing the water color change. Each drop of the color, let’s say red in this case, made the water change in color. With each successive drop, the color was brighter and more robust. At first, it was just faintly pink, and as time went on, it became redder. Finally, it was just red. Still, each drop affected the purity of the water. Even after the first drop, we would say the water was no longer pure, it was impure.
We need purity in the devout life! “Purity is the lily among virtues—by it men approach to the angels. There is no beauty without purity, and human purity is chastity” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 98). We should want and strive for purity. We are called to chastity in all relationships, whether we are married, priests, religious or single. Purity and chastity is something we should strive for and keep working at. Without it we cannot be holy! “Of a truth… without purity no one can ever see God…and our blessed Lord himself has promised the special blessing of beholding him to those that are pure in heart” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 99). St. Augustine really struggled with this idea of chastity because he said, “Give me chastity, but not yet.” St. Augustine wasn’t ready to live a devout life because he was not ready to live out chastity. Thanks be to God that is not the end of the story, later in life he was ready to embrace chastity, hence the fact that today he is a SAINT!
What does chastity mean? It means loving each person as a being. It is not looking to use another. Most of the time when we think of chastity, we think of it in a sexual sense in that we don’t lust after another. Lust means to use another. So to live out chastity, we will the good of another, we love them from our hearts and we desire their good. And finally, we ask God to bless them and keep them safe from all evil.